Yea Jason I know there are several of us, I was just curious if anybody other than Dennis had any issues with them. We don't hear of many here on the board and then I believe Dennis (Tharkun) may have took delivery of the first two 600s?

Hi folks, haven't posted here in a long time but logged on to check about a similar issue I see being discussed here so rather than start a new thread I thought I'd ask for advice here.

My EP600 is once again acting up. It was new 4/06 and has already had the amp replaced once about 2 years ago. Now it is acting up again. 2 nights ago there was a lot of popping in the speaker and then the dreaded very loud 60 cycle hum. I immediately un-plugged and after plugging it back in it went away. The sub is on it's own dedicated circuit with a Belkin AV Pure power conditioner / protector. Never been a ground loop problem before and have no reason to believe it is this time. I don't abuse the sub at all and frankly to have it start to act up again is a little disconcerting. I called and they were fine to talk to and suggested I remove the ground screw. Nothing changed. Still humming. Put it on a different circuit....same thing. Whether direct or through power protection. And it's always had a slight burnt electrical smell to it. Especially when warm. But so did the original.

They also looked up what was wrong with the last amp return and the notes said it was fine. Nothing wrong. Which I find very hard to believe believe cause I was able to take either an XLR or RCA from my pre amp, plug them into the EP600 and nada. But then take those same cables and plug them into either a 20 year old M&K or my EP350 and they worked fine. So if the amp wasn't dead then it must have had a voodoo curse on it or something.

Anyway, what to do? It seems to be working OK now again, albeit with a very slight hum that's only audible if it's dead silent and you're close up. But I'm already gun shy on this thing. I've got less than 6 months till the warranty is up. So do I bug them for a new amp? Again? Wait til it's completely dead?

It seems that I'm not alone with these issues. What have others done? And did the new design or version fix these problems? What exactly is dying in these things?

Hi folks, haven't posted here in a long time but logged on to check about a similar issue I see being discussed here so rather than start a new thread I thought I'd ask for advice here.

My EP600 is once again acting up. It was new 4/06 and has already had the amp replaced once about 2 years ago. Now it is acting up again. 2 nights ago there was a lot of popping in the speaker and then the dreaded very loud 60 cycle hum. I immediately un-plugged and after plugging it back in it went away. The sub is on it's own dedicated circuit with a Belkin AV Pure power conditioner / protector. Never been a ground loop problem before and have no reason to believe it is this time. I don't abuse the sub at all and frankly to have it start to act up again is a little disconcerting. I called and they were fine to talk to and suggested I remove the ground screw. Nothing changed. Still humming. Put it on a different circuit....same thing. Whether direct or through power protection. And it's always had a slight burnt electrical smell to it. Especially when warm. But so did the original.

They also looked up what was wrong with the last amp return and the notes said it was fine. Nothing wrong. Which I find very hard to believe believe cause I was able to take either an XLR or RCA from my pre amp, plug them into the EP600 and nada. But then take those same cables and plug them into either a 20 year old M&K or my EP350 and they worked fine. So if the amp wasn't dead then it must have had a voodoo curse on it or something.

Anyway, what to do? It seems to be working OK now again, albeit with a very slight hum that's only audible if it's dead silent and you're close up. But I'm already gun shy on this thing. I've got less than 6 months till the warranty is up. So do I bug them for a new amp? Again? Wait til it's completely dead?

It seems that I'm not alone with these issues. What have others done? And did the new design or version fix these problems? What exactly is dying in these things?

Thanks

Your amp is dying, kaput! The popping sounds followed by constant buzzing is indicative of that. I would recommend you not use that subwoofer and unplug it directly from the electrical outlet until you get a replacement amp. It is also not normal to have "burning smells" coming from electrical components.

_________________________
I’m armed and I’m drinking. You don’t want to listen to advice from me, amigo.

Thanks for the quick reply. And yes I would agree that the burning smell, or more like a hot electrical smell for lack of a better term, is not normal. But both amps have done it. Quite strange.

Thing that gets me is when he told me the other night that there was nothing wrong with my first amp?! Maybe that's just the standard response, or maybe they never even checked it. Who knows. I just hate to be a pain in the butt to them and want to be sure. If there's really nothing wrong with it then I would feel quite foolish and hate to put the folks at Axiom through the process of returning and sending another one. But I'm out of ideas and don't want it to completely die 3 days out of warranty.

Seems I'm not alone though. Been reading about a few failures here with similar problems / issues / diagnosis. Just read about the "helicopter effect" and that hit home. Sounds about right.

But why would these problems be intermittent? Seems to me when an electrical component dies it should just be dead. Though my knowledge of such things isn't precise.

Have others had multiple failures? What is it in these amps that is giving up the ghost? And have these failures been intermittent over a few weeks or months til completely dead?

It certainly sounds like a common case of what you see/hear/smell when a subwoofer amplifier fails or is beginning to fail. The popping followed by constant buzzing is a common sign of this. Usually caused by some sort of component failure. With component failures it can also be popping sounds, following a buzz and losing all power to the sub. Could even be a issue with the DSP in the amp which is causing some of the intermittent problems. In either case you need a new amplifier. Also the intermittent helicopter effect you describe is also an amplifier issue. You should not be experiencing this problem either.

_________________________
I’m armed and I’m drinking. You don’t want to listen to advice from me, amigo.